As IF Times

Source: How, this time, Trump may actually have gone too far (+video) – CSMonitor.com

So this time, according to the article, Donald Trump may have gone too far…he’s crossed the rubicon.  Hmm.  Many will recall when Trump first announced his candidacy for the GOP nomination earlier this summer.  His stated advantage was that since he was more than financially secure, he was not beholden to anyone or any group’s influence.  This meant that he could say what he wanted without fear of antagonizing financial backers or satisfying the established status quo.

He proved that over the ensuing few months by insulting a broad spectrum of people starting with illegal immigrants from Latin America, notably Mexico which set off the Hispanic community.  He also cast the Chinese as, while being clever, also evil in their trade policies.  He crassly insulted Megyn Kelly when she posed a question to him after a debate.  He called Carly Fiorina not attractive.  He insulted a known war hero, John McCain and of course he calls out politicians  for being stupid and incompetent…and those are the ones on his side.   Oddly only his barber has been left unscathed by his biting remarks.

So in summary, he’s notionally offended Hispanics the world over, a few billion Chinese, all women, soldiers and most politicians, left and right.  But now, he’s insulted Muslims! Now the media gets mobilized with outrage to condemn him??  Therefore, while he’s heretofore ‘offended’ well over 80% of the world’s population up to now, it’s only when Muslims appear to be slighted that everyone gets all college student in their indignation.

Only now that the Muslim community is called out do we observe nations threatening to ban Trump from entry; his name being removed from commercial projects; his castigation as a first class racist and a cad to boot.   I think that if anything, this tells the other constituency of insulted groups that they have no pull.  Their PR machinery has nowhere near the kind of influence that Muslims do in protecting their brand.  While The Donald is certainly no slouch when it comes to media manipulation, apparently, neither are the Muslims.

Yet, none of this has really affected Trump’s appeal to his supporters, who presumably come from all sectors of the offended groups. If anything, he seems to grow in approval.  The appeal is not in the man.  It’s in his unvarnished attack on the crippling mentality of political correctness which has infected society at every level.  Whether you like him or not, ironically, Trump is the guy standing up for free speech…and free speech is about freedom to say what’s unpopular, not the ability to get Facebook likes.

UPDATE:  As if to prove Trump’s point, other nations are telling Americans how to behave: Saudi Prince weighs in

link GoDaddy pulls Super Bowl puppy ad after outrage from animal rescue groups | Fox News.

In the wake of the outrage over the Charlie Hebdo events, life goes on as usual on this side of the ocean.  While everyone’s figurative heads are nodding like bored parents at a school play when it comes to the principle of rights of free expression, the exact same practices of restriction are tolerated or encouraged here.

Outraged Muslims (are there any other kind?) were upset about a caricature of their guy.  Outraged pet nuts (are there any other kind?) are upset about a caricature of pet ownership.  To be fair, there has been no violence or threats thereof directed against Go Daddy, but the resulting nix-ing of the ad is the same kind of censorship that was so objectionable when applied to the events in France.  Je Suis Go Daddy? Seldom is the main course of sanctimony served without the side dish of hypocrisy.  I guess it really depends upon whose ox is being gored.  Relax, that’s just an expression, no ox’s were harmed during this piece.

If we’re going to head down the road of having certain topics being out of bounds for humor, who’s going to be the arbiter? It’s not a huge stretch to see legislation drawn up to categorize the types of humor that are eligible for public consumption.  It’s ridiculous that just anyone should be allowed to make light of anything; maybe it makes sense for people to be licensed to convey humor.  That way, there are boundaries, codes of ethics, penalties etcetera to protect the public from sensitive topics and nobody gets any hurty feelings.

Rational people would say that the Muslim response to any or all slights to their beliefs registers a 37 on a scale of 1 to 10 for overzealousness.  Well the PC guys in this part of the world are rapidly moving up that scale as well as they ‘defend’ their particular cause of the day.  Only they aren’t armed with guns; they use lawyers.

Perhaps the best advice on this kind of stuff is expressed by a dialogue from the 1981 film, Stripes, featuring Bill Murray.  The dialogue is between a Sergeant and a tightly wound young man named Psycho:

Psycho: The name’s Francis Soyer, but everybody calls me Psycho. Any of you guys call me Francis, and I’ll kill you.

Leon: Ooooooh.

Psycho: You just made the list, buddy. And I don’t like nobody touching my stuff. So just keep your meat-hooks off. If I catch any of you guys in my stuff, I’ll kill you. Also, I don’t like nobody touching me. Now, any of you homos touch me, and I’ll kill you.

Sergeant Hulka: Lighten up, Francis.

And that’s the relevant message to everyone.